Amnon Boehm

The Participation of Businesses in Community Decision Making

Theoretical and practical trends of corporate citizenship indicate a deepening partnership between business and community. Following these developments, the article develops a model for the participation of businesses in decision-making processes as part of policy making and social-economic planning in the community. The article focuses on three levels: It examines the benefits and risks of such participation; identifies the typical dimensions of the participation processes; and finally, provides guidelines on how to develop a participation strategy based on the unique conditions of each business and community.

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Complementary Perspective of Community and Corporate Leaders

Research studies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) often focus on revealing corporate leaders’ attitudes toward various issues of CSR. The position of the present paper is that to understand CSR, we must grasp the collaborative perspective of CSR, and discern the attitudes of community leaders as well as corporate leaders. To this end, the study compares attitudes of community leaders with those of corporate leaders in three localities in Israel. The study examines various issues of CSR, highlighting the benefits to both community and corporation of reciprocal relations. Results from t-tests confirmed significant differences between the groups. Some important implications for CSR particularly in terms of collaboration between community and corporation are discussed.

Politically oriented social work intervention

This article discusses the influence of attitude toward national politics on social work intervention. Although national political affairs seem irrelevant to social work intervention, they are sometimes crucial, especially when foreign policy affects physical and mental existence, such as in the US during the Vietnam War, in the Middle East, in Hong Kong and in the former republic of Yugoslavia. Avoiding overt discussions on political issues can indirectly affect the intervention, especially through the worker’s role performance as social advocate and social change agent and sharing similar threats with clients, and client-worker relationships. However, such intervention requires special caution from the worker in order to avoid turning the intervention into a political debate, becoming judgemental towards clients or over-identifying with them. It also requires a professional policy that allows and supports the development and implementation of such interventions. This article is illustrated with the implementation of such intervention in Israel in regard to the peace process.

The contribution of social capital and coping strategies to functioning and quality of life of patients with fibromyalgia.

ObjectivesThe study aimed to determine the degree to which social capital (a combination of social resources that can be beneficial to a persons physical health and well-being), personal coping strategies, and additional personal and disease-related factors, contribute to the functioning and quality of life (QoL) of fibromyalgia (FM) patients. MethodsIn the assessment of their functioning and QoL, 175 Israeli FM patients completed the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) and the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) (dependent variables). In addition, they completed a modified Social Capital Questionnaires (which tests 3 subtypes of social capital: bonding, bridging, and linking), COPE-Multidimensional Coping Inventory (measures the use of problem vs. emotional-focused coping strategies), and a personal demographic questionnaire (independent variables). A multivariate regression analysis was used to assess the relative contribution of each independent variable to functioning and QoL of these patients. ResultsThe regression analysis showed that: (1) Bonding social capital and particularly the friend-connections component of bonding social capital contributed to the FIQ score and to the SF-36 parameters of social function, mental health, and bodily pain. (2) Problem-focused coping strategy contributed to the mental health parameter of the SF-36, whereas emotional-focused coping strategy contributed negatively to the FIQ score and to the mental health, general health, and bodily pain parameters of the SF-36. (3) In addition, duration of FM symptoms contributed to the SF-36 parameters of general health, social function, mental health, and bodily pain but not to the FIQ score; whereas, work status contributed significantly to the variance of FIQ. DiscussionBonding social capital, problem-solving coping strategies, and the duration of FM contribute positively to functioning and QoL of FM patients; whereas, emotional-focused coping strategies do the opposite. Further research to test the effects of strengthened social capital and enhanced problem-solving rather than emotion-focused coping strategies on functioning and QoL of FM patients is warranted.

National Culture and Prosocial Behaviors Results From 66 Countries

Numerous studies have attempted to explain prosocial behaviors. Most of these studies focus on individual and contextual factors. Although existing data on the national level have demonstrated significant differences between countries in the frequency of prosocial behaviors, the reasons for these differences have rarely been explored. We hypothesize that Hofstede’s national culture perspective can explain this variance. We applied five societal culture structures to explaining cross-national variations: individualism (IND)–collectivism, power distance (PD), uncertainty avoidance (UA), masculinity, and future orientation (FO). Analysis of data from 66 countries supported our hypotheses: IND correlated positively and PD correlated negatively with prosocial behaviors. Contrary to our hypothesis, UA and FO correlated negatively with prosocial behaviors. Furthermore, PD and UA interact with IND in prediction of prosocial behaviors. We further explored the effect of the cultural dimensions on specific prosocial behaviors separately and found which of them are related to the cultural dimensions.

Expectations of Grassroots Community Leadership in Times of Normality and Crisis

The article compares the preferences of community members for the transformational and transactional leadership styles of grassroots leaders at times of normality with those during a crisis. A structured questionnaire was administered to members of a community that experienced security crises on the Lebanese border of Israel before the 2006 Lebanon War. It reveals differences in the dominance of preferred leadership styles depending on the type of situation – normality or crisis. The article discusses these differences, compares the findings with those of other studies and considers their practical implications.

The Effects of Perceived Community Cohesion on Stress Symptoms Following a Terrorist Attack

ABSTRACT The effects of community cohesion were explored following a terrorist attack in Israel, during which an explosion on a public bus in a metropolitan city killed and wounded multiple individuals. Participants were 115 Israelis who resided in three specified perimeters around the area of impact. Data collected immediately following the attack and 1 month later included demographics, proximity and exposure to the terrorist event, community cohesion, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. For individuals reporting low and moderate degrees of exposure to the terror event, PTSD symptoms increased as community cohesion increased. However, for those with high exposure, PTSD symptoms and community cohesion were inversely related. Furthermore, for those who lived closest to the terror event, as community cohesion increased, PTSD symptoms decreased. However, for individuals who lived farther away from the terror event, community cohesion was positively associated with PTSD symptoms. One month following the attack, community cohesion did not significantly predict PTSD symptoms.

Managing the Life Cycle of a Community Project

Abstract A review of the literature reveals that it is customary to adopt a marketing approach in community project development, without analyzing the need for different phases in the life cycle of the project. The present article reports a study that examined the implementation of the marketing approach in 11 projects by 54 experts-specialists and professionals in Israel. It suggests that there is a need to match the different components of the marketing approach to different phases of the projects life cycle. The article describes and explains how to combine five central elements in the marketing area, namely, target market, social product, price, distribution, and promotion. The article discusses the necessity of adjusting the marketing components during four main phases in a project life cycle, namely, initiation, planning, implementation, and institutionalization.

The Effect of a Community Project on Sense of Community among Social Work Students: An Exploratory Evaluative Study

This article evaluates the effect of a community project that was adopted by the students of a school of social work in Israel. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was used. The pretest was administered during the planning stage of the project and the posttest a year later, during the implementation period. The findings show a significant positive effect of the project on sense of community among the students. This effect was moderated by students’ ethnic affiliation (Arab or Jewish) and professional commitment. The implications for using community projects to develop a sense of community in schools of social work are discussed.

University involvement in social planning: perspectives of community institutions and universities

The paper develops a descriptive model of different aspects of involvement by academic staff in social planning; for example, involvement in different stages of planning, level of influencing decision-making processes, and involvement in development and action roles for promoting change. Using a structured questionnaire, research conducted in Israel compared the attitudes of 178 university academic staff members and 128 staff members of community organisations towards each aspect of planning. Significant differences were found between the groups – in most respects the community staff members take a more positive stand toward the involvement of academic staff members than the academics themselves do.